“Safer than flying commercial, right?”
“Good lord. Let me make some calls. I think I actually do have a contact.”
Dad made good on his promise. Within six hours, he put me in touch with a guy who had a Learjet available for charter. After we had that, it was a waiting game.
We waited four days until Kenneth made contact with us. He called on Monday morning. Thankfully, I was home and able to take the call with Maddy.
“Are you guys ready?” Kenneth asked.
“Ready as we’re gonna be. Where are we meeting you?” I asked. I had the phone on speaker on the kitchen island.
“Sweden.”
Maddy and I exchanged a look before I spoke again. “Why Sweden?”
“I’ve got a safe house there. It’s where I’ve spent most of the last twenty-five years. The royals have never found me. It’ll be a safe spot to make our home base. It’s as safe as we can get. We can plan our next moves there.”
I took a breath, the reality of what we were about to do finally setting in. “Okay, Kenneth. I’d like to do this as soon as possible.”
“Hell. Can you all fly out tomorrow?”
Maddy was chewing nervously at her nails when I glanced up at her. She caught my eye and shrugged. “Why not?”
“Okay,” I said. “We’ll make the preparations.”
That night was one of the most stressful of my life. Things felt like they were coming to a head. The atmosphere was tense and nerve-wracking as Maddy and I packed. Even though we were going on a private jet, we decided to just do one carry-on bag each and a couple of backpacks. The last thing I wanted was to be lugging around a ton of luggage on what was supposed to be a secret recon trip.
That night, neither of us slept for shit, and the next day seemed to crawl by. We’d decided to fly out at night, hoping anyone watching might lose us in the darkness. I had a feeling that there were still eyes on us, and I had no plan to reveal our plans in the light of day.
Felipe and Sebastian came over right after dusk to see us off. Felipe put our bags in the back of my car and hugged Maddy and me in turn. “Be safe, guys. I’ll be really fucking pissed if you get killed over there.”
“Nice pep talk, Felipe,” I said, hugging him back.
Sebastian was uncharacteristically quiet and also hugged us both. If I didn’t know better, it seemed like he might have been on the verge of crying. I put a hand on his shoulder and looked into his eyes. “We’ll be back soon, bro.”
Sebastian nodded, flashing a feeble smile. “Yeah, yeah. See you guys soon.”
He hugged Maddy, then we got into the car and drove away. There was a strange finality to it, as well as a nagging feeling that now that we were on our way, things would never be the same again.
I hoped I was just being paranoid, but the feeling wouldn’t leave. Maddy must have felt something similar because she sat beside me, not uttering a single word. She seemed lost in thought.
We’d barely gotten over the county line when things started to feel weird. I slowed the car, knowing something was off. I couldn’t even describe it, but it felt like someone was standing right behind me. I could almost feel the breath on my neck.
“What’s wrong?” Maddy asked, noticing I’d slowed down.
I’d chosen to take some back country roads to the airport, hoping it would throw off any tails we might have. As we crested the hill, I saw that my plan had been for shit. There were three cars parked across the road, blocking us from going any further.
“Oh no,” Maddy whispered.
“Grab my phone. Text the guys that we’ve got an issue,” I said, bringing the car to a stop.
I glanced in the rearview mirror, hoping to back up and make a quick U-turn. Instead of an open road, a massive SUV with its lights off pulled out of the woods to block our escape. Son of a bitch. I’d never even seen the car as we came through.
This was bad. I did my best to look calm for Maddy, but I was freaking out inside. I put the car in park and stared through the windshield. My fingers gripped the steering wheel so hard, my knuckles were white.
Javi stepped out of the shadows. He raised his hands, gesturing that he was unarmed, and nodded at me to get out of the car.
Maddy curled her fingers around my thigh. “You can’t. Nico, you can’t go out there.”
I sighed. “There’s not much else we can do. I’m sorry. I guess I didn’t plan this as well as I thought. At least out there I’ll have a shot. If it goes bad, I can shift and try to fight them. Give you time to run.”
Maddy’s eyes were full of tears as she shook her head, flinging her hair back and forth. “No. They’ll kill you.”
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